From Astronomy To Ageing Over 110: Maltese Astrophysicist Dissects Generational Care Through AI
Maltese-led company ioLabs will this week give Med-Tech World Summit attendees gathering in Malta a glimpse of devices it plans to roll out at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next January.
Astrophysicist Kristian Zarb Adami shares his journey spanning the study of astronomy to ageing as an exciting one, as he describes longevity as the most exciting scientific challenge of the 21st century.
“When looking at challenges of interplanetary travel, I became absorbed by the debate on the longevity and got totally absorbed in it. What’s the point of an astronaut arriving on Mars if he doesn’t have the ability to get out of his chair? There is a really good chance that children being born today will live to see 120 and ioLabs wants to give people the opportunity to enjoy their families for as long as possible – ioLabs was born to be a catalyst for living longer, healthier.”
Malta is being seen as the potential last vertex, completing the “blue triangle” of the Mediterranean. Together with Sardinia and Greece, Zarb Adami argues, we have the capability of becoming a “blue” island with extraordinarily long health expectancies reaching well past the 110 mark.
ioLabs and its team of international and technical experts says they are here to provide guidance and awareness of our daily activities to maximise our healthspan and health expectancy.
“Our devices are geared to understand your daily activities, such as sleep and movement, your breathing and heart patterns to understand the speed of ageing diseases so that you can live in your home for longer… We are striving to make leaps and bounds in lengthening your stay, firstly on earth and secondly at home.”
“Our devices are either hidden in furniture or plugged into your electrical sockets, so that you don’t need to remember to carry your emergency pendant or a device while you go about your routine. Using AI, these devices can track your gait, your breathing and heart rate patterns and begin to create an awareness of your daily lifestyle and how you can help improve your healthspan.”
“These devices are there to provide peace of mind to family members who may be concerned about ageing parents, since they not only detect falls which can lead to prompt intervention, but can also predict the likelihood of falling through daily movement patterns,” Kristian Zarb Adami explained.
With cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses still major factors of death, these devices can monitor also breathing patterns and heart movements as you sit on your favourite chair and sleep in your bed to understand whether there is a cause for concern and how these patterns are changing over long periods of time.
ioLabs’ devices will be launched in the US in January, and in the meantime, it has teamed up with hospitals in the UK and in Malta that provide home care and emergency responses to trial out its devices.
It has also teamed up with the Ministry of Active Ageing in Malta so that nurses and caregivers can familiarise themselves with the ioCare system; a system that allows caregivers to spend more time providing care and solace to the patients as and when they require it.
“We hope these devices will give my generation the possibility of enjoying both our parents and our children for longer periods of health.”
ioLabs is a tech company with your well-being at its heart. We aim to accompany you on your and your family’s journey keeping you abreast of your health so that any interventions will be both prompt and personal. We wish to be a personal sherpa that guides you and your doctors to respond promptly to the various stresses and strains that today’s life inevitably imposes.